Ana Rodrigues dos Santos, the sister of Ulisses Pereira, was born in 1926 on the Santo Antônio smallholding, where she still lives. She says her entire family used to make decorated pots. “We come up with the drawings, and live as well as we can. My mother and grandmother used to make coffee filters, casseroles, and all kinds of pots. In the past, more people used to buy our things. Now things have changed. Things are hard. We have no roads, no transport, and very few people come round to buy our pieces.” She is afraid of letting her brother see her being photographed, and complains that his phobia makes it harder for them to become well known. “He goes mad, won’t let anyone of the family be photographed. That’s the way it has to be, and life goes on.”

The daughter of Ulisses Pereira, Margarida Pereira also sculpts. At first her work used to mirror that of her father’s, but slowly she managed to find her own language, which she discovered among the traditional drawings and ornaments of the local ceramists, using them to create bodies with multiple heads. She knows it isn’t easy to live with her father, but respects him because he has always been her greatest teacher. She says it’s normal for conflict to erupt, but time cures all. Margarida got married and lives in a village nearby, in a place that is also difficult to get to. Together, the entire family transforms clay into amazing imaginary sculptures.